please suggest tires for a class B chevy 3500

[THEBRAIN]

please suggest tires for a class B 05 Pleasureway Lexor RD Chevy 3500

current tires are some off brand name I've never heard of
fronts TerraMax radial tubeless size LT245/75R/16 not sure what LT stands for think the R is for radial.

rears are Mesa A/P2 MT+S LT245/75R/16

both fronts & rears have have 90% tread and I think are around 4 years old.
the rear spare is my main concern, I believe it's orginal it has dry rot cracks.

if these are crummie tires please suggest a decent tire. thanks

[mkguitar]

"LT" is light truck
You need to ensure they are Load Range "E" or load index 116 or higher

I've written on the michelin agillis cross climate
I have about 25000 miles on them since may 2020.
Particularly good in the wet, shedding water and resisting hydroplaning.
My best price was discount tire, about $760 after rebates

[N147JK]

Originally Posted by mkguitar

I've written on the michelin agillis cross climate

I'm thinking about installing a set of these. How is the noise level? Quiet, average, loud?

[mkguitar]

at first i was bummed, they were "slappy" on expansion joints.


then after i stopped for gas in Vegas ( from PHX) i noticed that I no longer noticed the noise...the noise had stopped- and it never came back.

The first 300 miles may be noisy in that regard.

these tires are equally as good as the previous michelins, the water shedding however is superior-

When we travel we often team drive, which means the co-driver needs to get rest, or sometimes watch tv. these tires allow that


I have no idea of how they'd be in snow- no plans to find out ( hee hee)

[GallenH]

I have the same Michelin agillis as Mike. Good tire. Didn't notice any noise
difference from my old ones.

[THEBRAIN]

Originally Posted by mkguitar

"LT" is light truck
You need to ensure they are Load Range "E" or load index 116 or higher

I've written on the michelin agillis cross climate
I have about 25000 miles on them since may 2020.
Particularly good in the wet, shedding water and resisting hydroplaning.
My best price was discount tire, about $760 after rebates

I'm starting to think you use the best available parts weather it's tires or shocks.

I see additional #s on front 120/116R on rears 130/116 I'm asssumming these are the load index rating.
I'll look again however didn't see load range E assume it's not neccesary to print load range E bc thev' printed the 130/116.

Mike have you ever jacked up either front or back w/ the suppled sissor jack to swap a wheel?

thanks Mike

[mkguitar]

Yes the load index is a "more modern" rating system which details the rating for different tire pressures- you can look up your tires for specifics from the manufacturer


I run 60 front. and 80 R. 80 in the spare.



I have not used the scissor jack- it works, it's lubed and ready to go ( so is my spare) I also have a small bottle jack... but I have floor jacks for use at home.


In terms of shocks/suspension I want comfort- we co-drive alot and while the driver can deal with lurching and swaying, the partner resting in the back needs comfort to be rested.
Tires- I want peace of mind-
I use a $50 amazon tire pressure monitor to provide peace of mind that I haven't holed a tire after driving through a debris field of tire carcasses on the highway-

[Thevon]

I've used the scissor jack when I had a rear tire blowout in the middle of nowhere Colorado. It worked. Same as Mike, at home I use a floor jack and jack stands.

[Roadtreker357]

I have successfully used the scissors jack a few times. It takes a lot of turns of the jack handle to get a tire off the ground. To make this much quicker and easier, I carry a cordless drill with a socket that fits on the jack handle. Reduces the time to raise and lower the jack about 90% (a guess).

[ChicagoTom]

Same Chevy that you have. 08 Lexor TS. As others have mentioned, the Michelin Agillis Cross Climate. The Defender was excellent too, but they stopped making them around 2017

[Anachr0n]

I was in the exact same boat as you are now. An old cracked spare and off brand main tires with decent tread left.
Add me to the Cross Climate vote of confidence. Put them on this summer and love them. The old ones weren’t all weather rated with 3PMSF, and I want to be able to go into the mountains between Oct 1 and Mar 31. So instead of wasting $250 CAD on one spare, I dropped $1,000 on a set of 4 and used the best of the old ones as my new spare.
The Michelins are quiet, get good gas mileage, and are good in the wet and in gravel. Haven’t tried them on snow yet.

[N147JK]

Originally Posted by Anachr0n

The Michelins are quiet, get good gas mileage, and are good in the wet and in gravel. Haven’t tried them on snow yet.

Thanks for that. When Costco puts them back on sale again, I'll buy a set.

It's smart not to ignore the spare. I bought a new wheel to use with my spare. The tire was the original spare that came with the van - 21 years old. It started crumbling when they tried to mount it, so got rid of that and picked up a decent used spare. Lesson I learned was.. don't ignore the spare - what good is a spare tire that fails when it's needed?

[Jfstang]

I decided to bite the bullet last spring. Tires on my 05 C190P looked good, lots of tread, but were stale dated, 6 or 7 years old. Friends told me they were still ok, I replied if I wait I'l have to replace in the next year or two anyways and the price was only going to go up anyways (didn't know how shockingly accurate I was on that one at the time!).
I was going to buy 4, then thought about the spare. It was original from 05. So I bought 5 new Michelin Agilis, was very happy with the choice, along with a set of Bilsteins. No issues driving all last summer, even in very heavy rain. Noise level fine, ride comfort was fine as well. I run the tires at 60 and 80 psi, Maybe front should be 50 or 55, I'm not sure. But no issues so far.

[peteco]

Originally Posted by Jfstang

I decided to bite the bullet last spring. Tires on my 05 C190P looked good, lots of tread, but were stale dated, 6 or 7 years old. Friends told me they were still ok, I replied if I wait I'l have to replace in the next year or two anyways and the price was only going to go up anyways (didn't know how shockingly accurate I was on that one at the time!).
I was going to buy 4, then thought about the spare. It was original from 05. So I bought 5 new Michelin Agilis, was very happy with the choice, along with a set of Bilsteins. No issues driving all last summer, even in very heavy rain. Noise level fine, ride comfort was fine as well. I run the tires at 60 and 80 psi, Maybe front should be 50 or 55, I'm not sure. But no issues so far.

I suggest you do a 5 tire rotation so the new spare doesn’t rot away like the old one did. You will get more miles out of the new set too.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Jfstang

I decided to bite the bullet last spring. Tires on my 05 C190P looked good, lots of tread, but were stale dated, 6 or 7 years old. Friends told me they were still ok, I replied if I wait I'l have to replace in the next year or two anyways and the price was only going to go up anyways (didn't know how shockingly accurate I was on that one at the time!).
I was going to buy 4, then thought about the spare. It was original from 05. So I bought 5 new Michelin Agilis, was very happy with the choice, along with a set of Bilsteins. No issues driving all last summer, even in very heavy rain. Noise level fine, ride comfort was fine as well. I run the tires at 60 and 80 psi, Maybe front should be 50 or 55, I'm not sure. But no issues so far.

We don't have the stock tire size anymore as we went o 265-75-16 tires, but when we had Michelin MS2 tires they handled best at 65 psi, just like the stock size original Bridgestones. I was a bit surprised as I thought the bigger size might like lower pressure. When we put the Agilis on we didn't see much difference in what pressure they liked until they got a few thousand miles on them when they got to feel better at 60 psi than 65 so others may see similar on the smaller stock size Agilis.


I don't think that going a whole lot under 60psi would give you much benefit except a bit of softer ride quality. Handling would probably get a bit worse. What you really have to look out for with pressures is that they change a lot with temperature. For every 10*F of temp change the fronts change about 1.5psi and rears close to 2psi. We have been places where we might see 40*F in the morning and 90* in the afternoon. If you set the pressure at you desired at the 90* you might wind up starting at 10 psi low on the rear tires and 7.5psi on the front. On times that has happened to us, I could really notice the deterioration of the handling of the van.

[THEBRAIN]

My spare is my main concern.I maybe be able to get a used 8 lug aluiminuim truck rim w/ a decent firestone
Tire. Waiting to see image of the manufactured date.

Sounds like the Michelins are the preferred tire. Do these tires have a higher count of cords than off brand names tires?

I would like nicer rims like found on the roadtecks I believe their American racing rims.anyone know the manufactor of these rims, I think the lighter the rim the less work the engine doe’s to turn wheel + they look cooler.

So for right now new shocks rims then tires.

inside of my spare is exposed to sunlight which proballey caused the dry rot cracks however only thick as a hair . To prevent this on next tire I will cover this portion of tire w/ maybe a canvas cover blocking sun damage.

Not sure how arcurate my new tire guage is this Amazon.com: JACO Deluxe Tire Pressure Gauge - 100 PSI : Automotive
I liked the sale price an the swivel. Hope to never have to use the sissor jack.

Roadtreker The drill w/ soceket is good suggestion what size sockect are you using? I need more storage. Considering a cargo carrier w/ a aluiminum toolbox for none towing boat trips.

Edit: Pete never heard of a 5 tire rotation how is this done?

booster excellent advice on preasure & temps, I need a bigger air compressor.

edit the stock sized tires appear kindof small will 285-75-17 be to big this is a used BF goodrichs truck tire deal w/ H3 hummer rims.
Thanks for advice

[booster]

Originally Posted by THEBRAIN

My spare is my main concern.I maybe be able to get a used 8 lug aluiminuim truck rim w/ a decent firestone
Tire. Waiting to see image of the manufactured date.

Sounds like the Michelins are the preferred tire. Do these tires have a higher count of cords than off brand names tires?

I would like nicer rims like found on the roadtecks I believe their American racing rims.anyone know the manufactor of these rims, I think the lighter the rim the less work the engine doe’s to turn wheel + they look cooler.

So for right now new shocks rims then tires.

inside of my spare is exposed to sunlight which proballey caused the dry rot cracks however only thick as a hair . To prevent this on next tire I will cover this portion of tire w/ maybe a canvas cover blocking sun damage.

Not sure how arcurate my new tire guage is this Amazon.com: JACO Deluxe Tire Pressure Gauge - 100 PSI : Automotive
I liked the sale price an the swivel. Hope to never have to use the sissor jack.

Roadtreker The drill w/ soceket is good suggestion what size sockect are you using? I need more storage. Considering a cargo carrier w/ a aluiminum toolbox for none towing boat trips.

Edit: Pete never heard of a 5 tire rotation how is this done?

booster excellent advice on preasure & temps, I need a bigger air compressor.

edit the stock sized tires appear kindof small will 285-75-17 be to big this is a used BF goodrichs truck tire deal w/ H3 hummer rims.
Thanks for advice

There are quite few threads on here about tires and wheels for the Chevies, and you should be careful about what wheels you get because the Chevies use a very specific offset on the wheels. The Roadtrek AR wheels are actually the wrong offset. You want +28mm offset for the Chevies.


If you want to go inexpensive, and not increase the tire size, there are 2008ish Silverado aluminum wheels that will work. They are the right offset and 6.5" wide, which is wide enough for stock tire size of 245-75-16 but not wider. Aftermarket is cheaper, but be very careful with brands as some have not so great quality, from what I have seen. Originals are pretty common in the junk yards, but stay in the south where they won't be all corroded.



If you want to go bigger, a 265-75-16 will fit on Roadtreks but you would have to check for sure they wouldn't hit your fiberglass added on parts which are a bit different than Roadtreks. There is only one wheel we have found that is the correct offset and width for that tire size, but it is a steel wheel of the same vintage Silverado. If you have a spare tire cover it may not fit the bigger rim and tire.


If you want to go aluminum, you can get one specific Vision wheel in a 17" size and tires that IIRC are 165 wide but I don't recall if they would be 65 or 70 series. Again the spare tire holder might need modification. Those aluminum wheels are quite reasonably priced and Vision makes nice wheels based on the ones I got for my 96 Roadmaster.


5 tire and 4 tire rotations are the norm and you can find hundreds of diagrams of the pattern by searching Google.

[Jfstang]

Good points on the tire pressure fluctuating with air temps. I'm much preferring better handling versus ultimate ride comfort, especially in a 8500 lb plus RV in a cross wind on a less than perfect road.
Question on the 5 wheel rotation. My rig has the usual AR rims with the steel spare on the back. Once I rotate them, aside from the obvious visual incongruity of having the spare steel wheel on the road looking different than the AR wheel, which itself isn't a huge issue for me, is there any issue having the correctly offset steel wheel on one corner with the wrongly offset AR rims on the other 3? Roadtrek probably thought there's no issue as that was the effect of their going cheap and installing the regular spare anyways, but in the real world are there any issues running that way long term?
Or should I look at picking up another aluminum rim for the spare tire somewhere?

[booster]

Originally Posted by Jfstang

Good points on the tire pressure fluctuating with air temps. I'm much preferring better handling versus ultimate ride comfort, especially in a 8500 lb plus RV in a cross wind on a less than perfect road.
Question on the 5 wheel rotation. My rig has the usual AR rims with the steel spare on the back. Once I rotate them, aside from the obvious visual incongruity of having the spare steel wheel on the road looking different than the AR wheel, which itself isn't a huge issue for me, is there any issue having the correctly offset steel wheel on one corner with the wrongly offset AR rims on the other 3? Roadtrek probably thought there's no issue as that was the effect of their going cheap and installing the regular spare anyways, but in the real world are there any issues running that way long term?
Or should I look at picking up another aluminum rim for the spare tire somewhere?

I would not mix offsets, especially in the front. The rear will be more forgiving, but you will have the rear tire out further than the front which can affect handling. If you buy another AR rim it will probably not fit a tire carrier on a roadtrek. If you changed the earlier mentioned aluminum Silverado wheel, you would fit the tire carrier but again be at mixed offsets.



IMO, the best would be to go all the aluminum Silverado wheels if want aluminum, the correct offset, and stock tire size. Just buy 5 and your tires and tire carrier will both be happy without replacing or altering. You will then be at stock offset all the way around so you can do a 5 tire rotation and get the benefit of having the right offset.

[Jfstang]

Thanks, that's the info I was looking for. I was hesitant about the different offsets, and that summary makes perfect sense. Will have to start looking in the future for some good used Silverado rims.
Have a great Christmas guys.